Iberian & Latin American Visual Culture Group

Call for Papers: Iberian (In)tolerance (8 November: London)

Paper proposals are being accepted for “Iberian (In)tolerance: Minorities, Cultural Exchanges, and Social Exclusion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era,” an LAHP Funded Postgraduate Students-led Conference to be held at Senate House, Bedford Room 37, University College, London.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, minorities in the Iberian peninsula experienced both peaceful coexistence and, at times, violent intolerance. But despite restrictions, persecutions, and forced conversions, extensive cultural production and exchange among Jews, Christians and Muslims defined the life in towns and cities across the centuries, particularly in Al-Andalus. In this context of religious (in)tolerance, the question of limpieza de sangre (blood purity) played an important role in preventing newly converted Christians from occupying high social positions. Recent approaches have highlighted how the question of limpieza de sangre was not only a matter of anti-Judaism or hostility towards Jews and Moors, but was also driven by personal enmity, ambition, and political interest. Also relevant are a series of political decisions concerning minorities, such as conversos or moriscos, which appeared in the two first decades of the seventeenth century and deeply affected the social climate of the time. This is reflected in literary works from the period, when a number of prominent pieces dealt directly with the issues raised by the political reforms. While some of the decisions are very well studied, such as the expulsion of the moriscos in 1609 and 1610, others such as the issue of the Pardons, in which the both Duke of Lerma and the Count-Duke of Olivares were involved, are less well known. It is clear that these circumstances affected the lives of many authors, their poetic trajectories and determined their voices and their works.
We invite proposals for papers in English (15-20 minutes) that explore the relationships among Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to the 17th century and how these relationships changed over time, as represented in literary works that mirrored and were influenced by the particular socio-political dynamics of the period.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Literature and minorities: Conversos, New Christians, Marranos, Moriscos.
• Literature and tolerance, convivencia, cultural exchanges.
• Literature and legality: statutes of limpieza de sangre (blood purity), blood libel, Pardons of 1609 and 1627, Duke of Lerma, Duke of Olivares.
• Literature beyond the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish identity in France, the Netherlands, Portugal, etc.